System and method for identifying and handling unwanted callers using a call answering system

ABSTRACT

A method and system for identifying an unwanted caller using a call answering system. The method comprises receiving, by a call records server, information about callers from a plurality of telephony devices and one or more phone number data sources, classifying, by the call records server, one or more of the callers as either wanted or unwanted callers based on the received information, and storing, by the call records server, the received information and the classification of the one or more of the callers into a directory. The method further comprises identifying, by a call answering server, that a call from a given caller from a phone number to a receiving telephony device is from an unwanted caller by searching the directory, and handling, by the call answering server, the call from the given caller according to one or more preferences of the user, the one or more preferences including rejecting the call from the receiving telephony device, playing a recorded message, and disposing of the call.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material,which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/150,244, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING UNWANTED CALLERSAND REJECTING OR OTHERWISE DISPOSING OF CALLS FROM SAME,” filed on Apr.20, 2016, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference inits entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The invention described herein generally relates to Internet-enabledtelephone devices, software and operating systems—both wireless andlandline—capable of determining and blocking calls from unwantedcallers.

Description of the Related Art

Telephone users may receive calls from callers such users generally andcollectively agree are unwanted—typically because the caller isunsolicited, such as a telemarketer who is sequentially or randomlycalling upon the audience and is not one of such users' typical knowncallers with which such users' have a pre-existing relationship. This isparticularly true in mobile communication systems where mobile telephoneusers will often be interrupted at any time by unwanted calls. Inaddition, unsolicited messages may be left in voice mail systems ofusers who configure their landline and wireless telephone devices toforward their unanswered calls to such voice mail systems to answertheir unanswered phone calls. Voice mail left by unwanted callers is anespecially expensive problem for users who must retrieve messages fromthe voice mail system via cell phones, long distance calls, ortranscriptions. Voice mail left by unwanted callers causes users tospend real dollars (air time, per minute charges, toll free charges toenterprise, voicemail transcription, etc.) and waste precious time onmessages to which they do not want to listen.

Current solutions are inadequate in resolving problems with unwantedcallers. Caller ID systems allow recipients to screen the source ofincoming calls, but many callers can either “spoof” a fake number toavoid recognition or block their Caller ID information entirely so thatno information is provided to a recipient about the caller.Call-blocking features allow recipients to block callers from specificphone numbers and those that intentionally block their callinginformation. Government telemarketing restriction lists allow recipientswho take certain specific steps to be listed as people who do not wishto be called by telemarketers, but such lists are not fully effective toavoid unwanted telephone calls.

From the above description, it can be seen that current solutions arenot suitable for preventing unwanted phone calls. Accordingly,technology is needed in order to enable effective call blocking.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present application provides a method and system for identifying anunwanted caller using a call answering system. The method comprisesreceiving, by a call records server, information about callers from aplurality of telephony devices and one or more phone number datasources, classifying, by the call records server, one or more of thecallers as either wanted or unwanted callers based on the receivedinformation, and storing, by the call records server, the receivedinformation and the classification of the one or more of the callersinto a directory. The method further comprises identifying, by a callanswering server, that a call from a given caller from a phone number toa receiving telephony device is from an unwanted caller by searching thedirectory, and handling, by the call answering server, the call from thegiven caller according to one or more preferences of the user, the oneor more preferences including rejecting the call from the receivingtelephony device, playing a recorded message, and disposing of the call.

The recorded message may be a disconnected tone. Receiving theinformation about callers may further comprise receiving call logs fromthe plurality of telephony devices. For instance, the call logs may bereceived from call answering applications executing onapplication-enabled phone devices. According to another embodiment,receiving the information about callers may further comprise collectingcontact and address book information that is stored on the plurality oftelephony devices. The contact and address book information may becollected from call answering applications executing onapplication-enabled phone devices. The contact and address bookinformation may also be synchronized from the plurality of telephonydevices into the directory through a computer network. In anotherembodiment, the method further comprises collecting call logs andcontact and address book information from a plurality ofapplication-enabled phone devices. Receiving the information aboutcallers may further comprise collecting telephone listings anddirectories of caller information. Alternatively, receiving theinformation about callers may further comprise receiving billing recordsand call detail records from service providers. In yet anotherembodiment, receiving the information about callers may further comprisereceiving voicemail data.

The method may further comprise receiving enhancements to the directoryfrom users of the plurality of telephony devices or assignedadministrators of the directory, wherein the enhancements to thedirectory include at least one from the group consisting of: edits ofcaller identification information, edits of images related to thecallers, and edits to the classification of the one or more of thecallers as wanted or unwanted callers. End-user provided informationabout a likelihood a given phone number is from an unwanted caller canbe received by the call records server. Agreement or disagreement withthe classification of the one or more of the callers as unwanted fromusers of the plurality of telephony devices may also be received.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises communicating, by thecall answering server, with a call answering application executed on thereceiving telephony device, the call answering application utilizing theclassification of the given caller to determine how calls from callingparties should be handled based on stored preference informationincluding allowing the calling parties to be greeted as a wanted callerand to record a message, or rejecting and disposing the calls from thecalling parties as unwanted callers by playing a message or a toneindicating that the receiving telephony device is disconnected or nolonger in service and terminating the calls.

An unidentifiable call may be received from an unknown or intentionallyhidden calling number. Accordingly, a caller from the unknown orintentionally hidden calling number may be prompted to provide a validcalling number. Another embodiment includes indicating to a caller fromthe unknown or intentionally hidden calling number that the telephonydevice is not accepting calls from the unknown or intentionally hiddencalling number. Alternatively, a caller from the unknown orintentionally hidden calling number may be indicated of the telephonydevice not accepting any calls. In yet another embodiment, the methodfurther comprises playing a disconnected message and hanging up on thecaller from the unknown or intentionally hidden calling number.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is illustrated in the figures of the accompanying drawingswhich are meant to be exemplary and not limiting, in which likereferences are intended to refer to like or corresponding parts, and inwhich:

FIG. 1 illustrates a flowchart of a method for determining unwantedcallers according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of a method for handling calls fromunwanted callers according to an embodiment of the present invention;and

FIG. 3 illustrates a computing system according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Subject matter will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, andwhich show, by way of illustration, exemplary embodiments in which theinvention may be practiced. Subject matter may, however, be embodied ina variety of different forms and, therefore, covered or claimed subjectmatter is intended to be construed as not being limited to any exampleembodiments set forth herein; example embodiments are provided merely tobe illustrative. It is to be understood that other embodiments may beutilized and structural changes may be made without departing from thescope of the present invention. Likewise, a reasonably broad scope forclaimed or covered subject matter is intended. Among other things, forexample, subject matter may be embodied as methods, devices, components,or systems. Accordingly, embodiments may, for example, take the form ofhardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof (other thansoftware per se). The following detailed description is, therefore, notintended to be taken in a limiting sense.

Throughout the specification and claims, terms may have nuanced meaningssuggested or implied in context beyond an explicitly stated meaning.Likewise, the phrase “in one embodiment” as used herein does notnecessarily refer to the same embodiment and the phrase “in anotherembodiment” as used herein does not necessarily refer to a differentembodiment. It is intended, for example, that claimed subject matterinclude combinations of example embodiments in whole or in part.

The present application describes methods and systems for identifying anunwanted caller by employing a call answering system and taking one ormore actions with respect to such unwanted calls based, in someembodiments, on user preferences. According to embodiments of thepresent invention, a call answering system is provided to serve as avoicemail system, or otherwise, replace or augment existing callanswering systems or the voicemail service of users' telephony devices.Calls of which users don't answer (e.g., they ignore them, are busy, ortheir phone is off) can be forwarded to a call answering service server,where a variety of activities are performed, such as, determining who iscalling, filtering out unwanted callers, greeting callers by name andwith status information, recording messages left by callers,transcribing the recorded messages, and delivering the recordedmessages. The call answering service server is capable of automaticallyfiguring out which callers are generally unwanted callers and thenblocking them. Each incoming number that calls a receiving phone devicemay be determined whether it is associated with an unwanted caller, andthen if they are, SIT (special information tones) tones and a “thenumber you have dialed is out of service” message may be played to theunwanted caller to give the appearance that the number of the receivingphone device is out of service (which generally causes them to stopcalling). A determination of unwanted callers may be achieved byleveraging a variety of data sources and aggregating information fromthe data sources.

The methods in some embodiments include a call records server collectinginformation about callers from a wide audience of telephony devices andone or more other data sources and storing the collected information ina caller directory. The collected information includes call logscollected from the wide audience of connected telephony devices over acomputer or communication network, and contact and address bookinformation stored on telephony devices or other directories containingcaller information.

Callers can be identified as either wanted or unwanted callers based onthe stored information in the caller directory, in accordance with oneor more rules. The rules may identify unwanted callers as those who maketoo many calls within given period of time, those who leave identicalvoicemails, or those identified as likely unwanted callers from othersources. Additionally, callers may be categorized into or flagged asentities such as a bank, telemarketer, debt collector, etc. Thedirectory of caller information may be enhanced by users of thetelephony devices or assigned administrators of the directory, where theenhancements to the information include one or more of the following:editing of caller identification information, editing images that may berelated to the caller, or editing the classification of the caller as awanted or unwanted caller.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the call answeringsystem may include a call answering application executing or running inthe background on a telephony device operable to communicate with a callanswering service server. The telephony device may receive a call from agiven caller. The given caller may be identified by the call answeringapplication or the call answering service server as having beenclassified as a wanted or unwanted caller based on certain informationfrom the caller directory such as its phone number or other callingactivity. If the given caller is identified as an unwanted caller, thecall answering service server (or the application, or a combination ofboth) can identify the given caller as an unwanted caller to a user ofthe telephony device, and automatically direct the caller to the callanswering service server to reject the unwanted caller from thetelephony device, or otherwise dispose of the received call.

According to another embodiment, the classification of the given callercan determine how a calling party should be handled by the callanswering service server. The call answering service server may beinstructed based on stored preference information associated with theuser or telephony device to either, allow the calling party to begreeted as normal, as a wanted caller, (and optionally record amessage), or reject and/or dispose of the calling party as an unwantedcaller (and optionally playing a message or a tone implying the deviceor system is disconnected or no longer in service) and terminate thecall. According to another embodiment, the call answering service servermay challenge or prompt a given caller who has not provided orintentionally hidden or “spoofed” the calling number to provide a validcalling number such that classification of the given caller as wanted orunwanted can be determined and cannot be circumvented by omitting,disguising or “spoofing” the calling number.

FIG. 1 illustrates a flowchart of a method for determining unwantedcallers according to an embodiment of the present invention. A callrecord server may collect information about callers who have beendirected to the call answering service server. A phone number of acaller is identified, step 102. The phone number may be received orrecorded by a call record server from call logs or contact informationfrom application-enabled phone devices. The phone number may be any typeof phone number (e.g., landline, cellular, VoIP, etc.) and identifiedvia caller ID or other similar services. Information from data sourcesare analyzed, step 104. The call record server may gather informationassociated with the phone number of the caller from a wide, distributedaudience of telephone users and phone number data sources (e.g., phonebooks, other call answering systems, voicemail systems, phone networksystems (e.g., private branch exchange (“PBX”)), telephone listings anddirectories, etc.) and collect it centrally at the call record serverfor evaluation to identify whether the phone number is associated withan unwanted caller.

Call patterns may be determined by the call record server based onseveral kinds of information about a caller from the telephone users andphone number data sources such as the ones listed in the following:

1) Any or all past calls that may have been received by the callanswering system (phone number of caller, name if known, time of call,and who was called).

2) Any or all past calls that have called devices associated with thecall answering system (e.g., call logs from native call log application,calling application, or the call answering application running onapplication-enabled phones, and/or contact lists on theapplication-enabled phones).

3) Voicemails that have been transcribed, which can be encoded topreserve privacy—voicemail systems (such as ones provided by cellularnetwork providers) shared by millions of users of telephone devices,possess a database of call records and can be used to perform analyticson those calls to determine attributes about calling parties that areshared across the owners of those devices. For example, if atelemarketer at 1-800-555-8000 were to call consumers, the callanswering service server can determine from the call records that alarge number of the device owners all received a call in the same dayfrom that telemarketer and the majority did not answer it. Additionally,the calling telemarketer either chose not to leave a recorded voicemailfor the party that was called, or chose to leave the same recordedvoicemail for all called parties. Combined with the ability tooptionally synchronize other data from telephone devices, namelycontacts stored within those devices, the system can also determineother attributes about the calling party—namely that the calling partywas not a pre-existing contact of the majority of called parties.

4) Contacts of users or subscribers of phone devices and other datarelated to the contacts (which may include information about whether ornot the user wants to have calls from that contact).

5) Various publically available or private databases (such as toll-freenumber directories, residential white page lists, yelp's list ofbusinesses, etc.).

6) Various lookup tools to discover information about a number (such aswhich carrier it is connected to, whether or not it's wireless, whatname might be associated with it). Unwanted callers typically employtechniques where they have selected a particular number to perform theseunwanted calls in bulk—a number that has not historically been used forthis purpose prior to a given date. By examining the full history ofcalls by the calling party over a time period, for example, the pastyear—it can further be determined that a caller is doing somethingunusual by suddenly going from not placing calls to a wide audience tosuddenly doing so.

7) Tools that allow curated information about phone numbers to beprovided.

8) End-user provided information (e.g., received fromapplication-enabled phone or computing devices) about the likelihood anumber is that of an unwanted caller.

9) Phone numbers of callers explicitly identified or indicated asunwanted by users.

Information associated with the phone number is accumulated, step 106.The information about the callers and the analysis of the information bythe call record server may be transmitted to and stored on a phonedirectory server. Information stored in the phone directory server isuseable by users of either, private or public parties, and may be sharedto either other private or public parties. Additionally, users may beable to edit or categorize certain numbers in the phone directory serveras entities, such as, a bank, telemarketer, debt collector, etc.Information in the phone directory server may also be enhanced by usersof the telephony devices or assigned administrators of the directory.The enhancements to the information include one or more of thefollowing: editing of caller identification information, editing imagesthat may be related to callers, or editing the classification of callersas wanted or unwanted callers.

A probability that the phone number is associated with an unwantedcaller is calculated, step 108. The probability of a caller being anunwanted caller may be calculated based upon the calling patternsdetermined by the call record server, which is described in furtherdetail with respect to the description of an engine included in thephone directory server illustrated in FIG. 3 . The users of the callanswering system (or audience of telephony device users) can also agreeor disagree with the classification of a caller as unwanted, or anyother information in the directory, further strengthening thecategorization of a specific calling number as universally unwanted by adistributed audience. Based on the calling patterns and voting from theaudience, the phone directory server may calculate the probability ofthe phone number being from an unwanted caller. A threshold may beconfigured such that if the calculated probability exceeds thethreshold, step 110, the phone number is recorded as an unwanted caller,step 112. Otherwise, the method proceeds to identify a number of anothercaller in step 102. Alternatively, a probability does not need to becalculated to record a phone number as an unwanted caller for instanceswhere a caller from a number is explicitly identified as an unwanted orwanted caller.

Users of the call answering system can dispose of calls from unwantedcallers depending on their personal preferences (which may be stored ona server or call answering application installed on the user's phonedevice). In one example, the call answering service server is able toanswer the unwanted caller's phone call and play a sequence of tonesfollowed by a “disconnected message” that emulates the behavior of aphone number that is not in service. Typically, telemarketers employdialing systems that upon discovering a disconnected number, will removethat number from repeat dialing attempts. In this manner, users of thecall answering system may receive a single call from an unwanted caller,and then be removed from that unwanted caller's dialing list, so thatthey are not contacted again in the future.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of a method for handling calls fromunwanted callers by a call answering server according to an embodimentof the present invention. A call is received, step 202. The call may bea call that has been unanswered on a phone device and is forwarded to acall answering service server. The call may also be a call received at acentral phone system such as a PBX system for switching or routing tothe phone device. The call answering service server identifies a phonenumber of a caller associated with the call, step 204. In certaininstances, the phone number of the caller may be intentionally hidden or“spoofed.” The call answering service server may challenge or prompt thecaller to provide a valid calling number such that classification of thegiven caller as a wanted or unwanted caller can be determined and cannotbe circumvented by omitting, disguising or “spoofing” the callingnumber. Alternatively, the call answering service server may interceptthe call from an unknown or unverified number and perform any of thefollowing: 1) report to the caller that the person they are calling doesnot accept these kinds of calls, 2) report to the caller that the personthey are calling does not accept any calls, and 3) hung up on the callerand/or optionally play a disconnected message.

A directory is searched for the phone number of the caller, step 206.The phone number may be searched by contacting a phone directory serverto determine whether the caller is an unwanted caller, step 208. Thephone directory server may include information on phone numbers thathave been aggregated from the call records server and an indication ofthe likelihood that a given number is from an unwanted caller. If thephone number is not determined as being associated with an unwantedcaller, voice mail operations are executed, step 210. Voice mailoperations may include greeting the caller with a message, prompting thecaller to leave a message, recording the message, and other answeringservice operations (e.g., PBX—“Press ‘1’ for sales, Press ‘2’ for . . .). However, if the phone number is determined to be associated with anunwanted caller, out-of service operations are executed, step 212. Usersmay be provided with the option to automatically reject and dispose ofunwanted callers should their telephone device receive a call from anunsolicited caller. Out-of-service operations may include playing asequence of tones to the caller followed by a “disconnected message”that emulates the behavior of a phone number that is not in service.Additionally, users can configure their telephone devices to not ring ordisplay the incoming call when they are determined to be unwanted, thuseffectively eliminating any personal distraction that may have otherwiseexperienced upon receiving a call from an unwanted caller.

FIG. 3 illustrates a computing system according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. The system presented in FIG. 3 includes phone devices302 (such as landline, cellular, analog, digital, satellite, radio,etc.), that are capable of establishing and receiving telephoniccommunications via a public telephone network 306, as well asapplication/app-enabled phone devices 304 capable of establishing andreceiving telephonic communications via the Internet 308 (e.g., usingVoIP). In some embodiments the app-enabled phone devices 304 are enabledwith a personal assistant app such as the one available from YouMailInc., www.youmail.com, the assignee of the present patent application.

According to another embodiment, the system includes a private VPN(virtual private network) 308, or any other communications network.App-enabled phone devices 304 may be a computing device capable ofrunning a telephony-related application (e.g., WiFi calling system, VoIPphone, etc.). Examples of computing devices include personal computers,television set top boxes, terminals, mobile smartphones, laptops,personal digital assistants (PDA), tablet computers, e-book readers, orany computing device having a central processing unit and memory unitcapable of connecting to a communications network. The computing devicemay also comprise a graphical user interface (GUI) or a browserapplication provided on a display (e.g., monitor screen, LCD or LEDdisplay, projector, etc.). A computing device may also include orexecute an application to communicate content, such as, for example,textual content, multimedia content, or the like. A computing device mayalso include or execute an application to perform a variety of possibletasks, such as browsing, searching, playing various forms of content,including streamed audio and video. A computing device may include orexecute a variety of operating systems, including a personal computeroperating system, such as a Windows, Mac OS or Linux, or a mobileoperating system, such as iOS, Android, or Windows Mobile, or the like.A computing device may include or may execute a variety of possibleapplications, such as a computing software application enablingcommunication with other devices, such as communicating one or moremessages, such as via email, short message service (SMS), or multimediamessage service (MMS), including via a network, such as a socialnetwork, including, for example, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, orGoogle+, to provide only a few possible examples.

In accordance with embodiments of the invention, the system furtherincludes a call records service server 314, a phone directory server312, and a call answering service server 310. These servers may varywidely in configuration or capabilities, but generally a server eachincludes one or more central processing units and memory. A server mayalso include one or more mass storage devices, one or more powersupplies, one or more wired or wireless network interfaces, one or moreinput/output interfaces, or one or more operating systems, such asWindows Server, Mac OS X, Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, or the like.

The call records service server 314 is able to accumulate phone numbersand information about the phone numbers from a variety of sources thatcan be used to determine if a given phone number is that of an unwantedcaller. One such source are the app-enabled phone devices 304 shown inFIG. 3 , which may send a list or log of calls made and received, and alist of contacts including phone numbers and associated identifiers tothe call records service server 314 over the VPN, Internet or othercommunication network 308. Another source of information foraccumulation in the call records service server 314 include publiclyavailable phone number data sources 316, such as, telephone listings anddirectories, electronic yellow pages, and the like. Still other possiblesources of information for populating the call records service 314include voicemail transcription systems such as the personal assistantapp from YouMail as mentioned above, cell phone billing records,telephone and cable service provider records such as CDRs (call detailrecords), and the like.

The phone directory server 312 may include phone numbers that have beenaggregated by the call records service server 314, information about thephone numbers, and for each phone number, an indication of thelikelihood that the phone number is that of an unwanted caller. Phonedirectory server 312 includes an engine that determines the likelihoodthat a particular number is that of an unwanted caller based on theinformation about the phone numbers by using the techniques describedherein. The indication of likelihood may be represented by a binary flagindicating whether or not the number has been determined as exceeding athreshold value set as likely to be that of an unwanted caller.Alternatively, the likelihood may be represented with a score valuecomputed as the likelihood of representing an unwanted caller based on aset of quantitative rules. In another embodiment, an indication may beretrieved from the call records service server 314 that explicitlyidentifies a phone number as an unwanted caller (or categorizedotherwise) by one or more users.

The engine of phone directory server 312 can use various set of rules tohelp it determine the likelihood or probability of a number being thatof an unwanted caller. For example, a rule can be: If a number N is awireless number, and it has called more than N times to Y differentusers within a period of M minutes, then it is 100% sure to be a numberof an unwanted caller. This rule assumes that it is impossible or highlyunlikely for a person with a cell phone to dial more than a certainnumber of calls in a certain period of time—if a determination of morethan what's achievable or reasonable in that time period, the number maybe spoofed and an unwanted caller is using it. Another exemplary rulecan be: If N has a non-zero score and the hashed content of a message Nmatches the hashed content of messages from a number M known to be anunwanted caller, then N is the number of an unwanted caller. This ruleis dependent on the fact that unwanted callers tend to leave the sameautomated message over and over, and if a new number leaves the samemessage, it is likely from an unwanted caller. Yet another rule mayinclude determining whether a calling number is valid based on whetherit belongs to a real area code or a real subset of that area code. Therecan be a variety of other rules or rule equivalents and any combinationthereof.

The call answering service server 310 may query the phone directoryserver 312 to identify whether an incoming call to a receiving phonedevice from a given number is likely to be that of an unwanted caller.If it's likely to be the number of an unwanted caller, the callanswering service server 310 can be configured to play an appropriatemessage containing SIT tones to indicate out of service to an unwantedcaller and terminate the call. On playing the message, the callanswering service server 310 may combine or create messages from thecarrier of the user and/or the carrier of the caller to provide amessage identical to that the carrier would play for a disconnectednumber. The message played by call answering service server 310 need notbe a generic message but can simulate an actual Telco experience. Forexample, if a user is a subscriber from a specific carrier, callanswering service server 310 may play the carrier's specific audio to anunwanted caller. If the number is determined not likely from that of anunwanted caller, call answering service server 310 may perform voicemail operations such as playing a message that the subscriber of thereceiving phone device is unavailable and the caller may record a voicemessage.

FIGS. 1 through 3 are conceptual illustrations allowing for anexplanation of the present invention. It should be understood thatvarious aspects of the embodiments of the present invention could beimplemented in hardware, firmware, software, or combinations thereof. Insuch embodiments, the various components and/or steps would beimplemented in hardware, firmware, and/or software to perform thefunctions of the present invention. That is, the same piece of hardware,firmware, or module of software could perform one or more of theillustrated blocks (e.g., components or steps).

In software implementations, computer software (e.g., programs or otherinstructions) and/or data is stored on a machine readable medium as partof a computer program product, and is loaded into a computer system orother device or machine via a removable storage drive, hard drive, orcommunications interface. Computer programs (also called computercontrol logic or computer readable program code) are stored in a mainand/or secondary memory, and executed by one or more processors(controllers, or the like) to cause the one or more processors toperform the functions of the invention as described herein. In thisdocument, the terms “machine readable medium,” “computer readablemedium,” “computer program medium,” and “computer usable medium” areused to generally refer to media such as a random access memory (RAM); aread only memory (ROM); a removable storage unit (e.g., a magnetic oroptical disc, flash memory device, or the like); a hard disk; or thelike.

Notably, the figures and examples above are not meant to limit the scopeof the present invention to a single embodiment, as other embodimentsare possible by way of interchange of some or all of the described orillustrated elements. Moreover, where certain elements of the presentinvention can be partially or fully implemented using known components,only those portions of such known components that are necessary for anunderstanding of the present invention are described, and detaileddescriptions of other portions of such known components are omitted soas not to obscure the invention. In the present specification, anembodiment showing a singular component should not necessarily belimited to other embodiments including a plurality of the samecomponent, and vice-versa, unless explicitly stated otherwise herein.Moreover, applicants do not intend for any term in the specification orclaims to be ascribed an uncommon or special meaning unless explicitlyset forth as such. Further, the present invention encompasses presentand future known equivalents to the known components referred to hereinby way of illustration.

The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fullyreveal the general nature of the invention that others can, by applyingknowledge within the skill of the relevant art(s) (including thecontents of the documents cited and incorporated by reference herein),readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specificembodiments, without undue experimentation, without departing from thegeneral concept of the present invention. Such adaptations andmodifications are therefore intended to be within the meaning and rangeof equivalents of the disclosed embodiments, based on the teaching andguidance presented herein. It is to be understood that the phraseologyor terminology herein is for the purpose of description and not oflimitation, such that the terminology or phraseology of the presentspecification is to be interpreted by the skilled artisan in light ofthe teachings and guidance presented herein, in combination with theknowledge of one skilled in the relevant art(s).

While various embodiments of the present invention have been describedabove, it should be understood that they have been presented by way ofexample, and not limitation. It would be apparent to one skilled in therelevant art(s) that various changes in form and detail could be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.Thus, the present invention should not be limited by any of theabove-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only inaccordance with the following claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for identifying an unwanted caller usinga call answering system, comprising: identifying, by a call answeringserver, a phone number of a caller associated with an incoming call to aphone device; searching, by the call answering server, a directoryincluding information about the phone number from a plurality oftelephony devices and one or more phone number data sources, wherein thedirectory has been enhanced by edits provided from one or more users ofthe plurality of telephony devices; calculating, by the call answeringserver, a probability that the phone number is associated with anunwanted caller based on the information; and handling, by the callanswering server, the incoming call based on the probability that thephone number is associated with an unwanted caller according to one ormore preferences of a user associated with the phone device, the one ormore preferences including rejecting the incoming call, playing arecorded message, and disposing of the incoming call.
 2. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the information in the directory has been enhanced basedon voting from the one or more users of the plurality of telephonydevices.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the information in thedirectory is based on calling patterns of the phone number.
 4. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the information in the directory comprisescontact and address book information that are stored on the plurality oftelephony devices.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the information inthe directory comprises categorization of the phone number as a givenentity.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining thatthe phone number is hidden or disguised; and prompting the caller toprovide a valid calling number.
 7. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising: intercepting the incoming call from an unknown or unverifiednumber; and report to the caller that the phone device does not acceptthe incoming call.
 8. A call answering server comprising: a processor;and a memory having executable instructions stored thereon that whenexecuted by the processor cause the processor to: identify a phonenumber of a caller associated with an incoming call to a phone device;search a directory including information about the phone number from aplurality of telephony devices and one or more phone number datasources, wherein the directory has been enhanced by edits provided fromone or more users of the plurality of telephony devices; calculate aprobability that the phone number is associated with an unwanted callerbased on the information; and handle the incoming call based on theprobability that the phone number is associated with an unwanted calleraccording to one or more preferences of a user associated with the phonedevice, the one or more preferences including rejecting the incomingcall, playing a recorded message, and disposing of the incoming call. 9.The call answering server of claim 8 wherein the information in thedirectory has been enhanced based on voting from the one or more usersof the plurality of telephony devices.
 10. The call answering server ofclaim 8 wherein the information in the directory is based on callingpatterns of the phone number.
 11. The call answering server of claim 8wherein the information in the directory comprises contact and addressbook information that are stored on the plurality of telephony devices.12. The call answering server of claim 8 wherein the information in thedirectory comprises categorization of the phone number as a givenentity.
 13. The call answering server of claim 8 further comprising theprocessor configured to: determine that the phone number is hidden ordisguised; and prompt the caller to provide a valid calling number. 14.The call answering server of claim 8 further comprising the processorconfigured to: intercept the incoming call from an unknown or unverifiednumber; and report to the caller that the phone device does not acceptthe incoming call.
 15. A system for identifying an unwanted caller, thesystem comprising: a directory including phone numbers identified asunwanted callers based on information about the phone numbers and inaccordance with one or more rules, the information including callactivity associated with the phone numbers and the one or more rulesincluding characteristics pertaining to call activity associated withunwanted callers, wherein the directory has been enhanced by editsprovided from one or more users of a plurality of telephony devices; anda phone device executing a call answering application configured to:identify a phone number of a caller associated with an incoming call tothe phone device, search the directory for the phone number of thecaller, and handle the incoming call based on the search of thedirectory wherein unwanted callers are forwarded to a call answeringserver.
 16. The system of claim 15 further comprising the phone deviceexecuting the call answering application configured to determine theincoming call is associated with an unwanted caller based on the searchof the directory.
 17. The system of claim 15 further comprising a callrecords server configured to collect the information about the phonenumbers from the plurality of telephony devices and one or more phonenumber data sources.
 18. The system of claim 15 wherein thecharacteristics pertaining to call activity associated with unwantedcallers include making a number of calls exceeding a given amount withina given period of time from a number, or leaving messages includingcontent that matches content of messages from known unwanted callers.19. The system of claim 15 further comprising the call answering serverconfigured to: determine that the phone number is hidden or disguised;and prompt the caller to provide a valid calling number.
 20. The systemof claim 15 further comprising the call answering server configured to:intercept the call from an unknown or unverified number; and report tothe caller that the phone device does not accept the call.
 21. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the information in the directory has beenenhanced by edits to a classification of the phone number as beingassociated with an unwanted caller provided by the one or more users ofthe plurality of telephony devices.
 22. The method of claim 1 whereinthe information in the directory has been enhanced by edits toidentification information for the phone number provided by the one ormore users of the plurality of telephony devices.
 23. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the information in the directory has been enhanced byedits to one or more images related to the phone number provided by theone or more users of the plurality of telephony devices.
 24. The callanswering server of claim 8 wherein the information in the directory hasbeen enhanced by edits to a classification of the phone number as beingassociated with an unwanted caller provided by the one or more users ofthe plurality of telephony devices.
 25. The call answering server ofclaim 8 wherein the information in the directory has been enhanced byedits to identification information for the phone number provided by theone or more users of the plurality of telephony devices.
 26. The callanswering server of claim 8 wherein the information in the directory hasbeen enhanced by edits to one or more images related to the phone numberprovided by the one or more users of the plurality of telephony devices.